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Robot Astronaut Robonaut 2 in this year’s first went into space.

Currently, NASA makes preparatory operations whose purpose is to launch the space of a humanoid robot Rowboat 2 (R2). The robot will go to the International Space Station (ISS) in the mission Discovery STS-133 launch is scheduled for the month of September 2010. Rowboat robot 2, which we already told in the pages of our site was developed and manufactured jointly by scientists and engineers of NASA and the company General Motors (GM). 140 killogrammovy Rowboat 2 consists of a torso, head and two hands with tassels capture, performed like a human hand. The robot, in conjunction with the Canadian robot Dexter, will be the second robot to the ISS and the first humanoid robot in space.

At that time, as has already been installed on the ISS robot Dexter deployed outside the station, R2 will be installed in the premises of the laboratory Destiny, located in the U.S. segment of ISS. However, the subsequent modification of the robot R2 may allow him to move freely throughout the interior stations, and probably beyond. Existing robot Rowboat 2 not only has the shape close to a human, he can work as a member of the team. With such human hands and wrists, R2 can perform the same operations and actions, as well as ordinary people, in some cases even faster and better person.

“Using the robot Rowboat 2 on the space station is just the beginning of the process of automated research and space exploration, carried out jointly by humans and robots” – said John Olson (John Olson), director of NASA on the integration of research systems (NASA Exploration Systems Integration Office). “Working people and robots in the field of the solar system allow us to take a step further and achieve more than we can even imagine now.”

“So far, R2 is a prototype, it lacks protection systems that will enable it to operate outside the station in outer space, in a change of extremely high and low temperatures. However, testing of the robot inside the station will be an important intermediate stage, at which the to test the robot in weightlessness, will be studied the effects of exposure to a cosmic radiation and electromagnetic field caused by the influence of solar radiation “- added Olson.